Talking about difficult experiences can be a way of easing the emotional pain of trauma, but the latest research shows that expressing emotions in words can also speed physical healing.

The study is the latest delving into the mind-body connection to suggest that expressing emotions about a traumatic experience in a coherent way may be important to not just mental but physical health as well. It showed that the calming effect of writing can cut physical wound healing time nearly in half.

Researchers led by Elizabeth Broadbent, a senior lecturer in health psychology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, studied 49 healthy senior citizens, aged 64 to 97. For three days, half were assigned to write for 20 minutes a day about the most traumatic event they had experienced, and were encouraged to be as open and candid as they could about exactly what they felt and thought at the time. If possible, they were also asked to share thoughts or emotions that they had never expressed to others about what they had undergone.

The other participants wrote for the same duration about their plans for the next day, avoiding mentioning their feelings, opinions or beliefs. Two weeks after the first day of writing, researchers took small skin biopsies, under local anesthesia, that left a wound on the arms of all participants. The skin tissue was used for another study.

A week later, Broadbent and her colleagues started photographing the wounds every three to five days until they were completely healed. Eleven days after the biopsy, 76% of the group that had written about trauma had fully healed while only 42% of the other group had.

“This is the first study to show that writing about personally distressing events can speed wound healing in [an older] population that is at risk of poor healing,” says Broadbent.

It’s not the first, however, to reveal the intriguing connection between state-of-mind and physical health. In previous studies, this type of emotionally expressive writing, as opposed to writing on neutral topics, reduced viral load in HIV-positive patients and increased their levels of virus-fighting immune cells. The practice also increased the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination by increasing antibody levels generated by the vaccine and speeding wound healing in young men.

But in terms of psychological health, the results are more conflicting. A recent study found that writing about disturbing combat experiences may improve marital satisfaction among soldiers returning home from war zones while another paper in which patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) wrote about their difficult experiences did not find that the practice reduced symptoms. Putting emotions down in words did, however, improve mood and reduce levels of stress hormone in these patients.

One way that writing about distressing events could give the body a boost is by promoting sleep. “We found that people who got at least seven hours of sleep most nights had faster healing than those who got less sleep,” Broadbent says. Sleep deprivation can lower levels of growth hormone, which is important for repairing injuries. And writing about their traumatic experiences also seemed to help participants to actually get more sleep. “Many people who have written about their negative experiences report that it allowed them to gain greater insight into what happened and to put the event into perspective,” says Koschwanez, “This might reduce the extent to which the event troubles them and possibly improve their sleep.”

The writing may also help the body by reducing stress; less anxiety means fewer stress hormones, which can interfere with chemicals needed for wound healing. While Broadbent’s study did not find such a link, it’s possible the researchers were not evaluating the right anxiety measures. “It might be that our perceived stress questionnaire was not assessing the right type or duration of stress,” says Heidi Koschwanez, a study co-author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Auckland.

It’s also possible that emotional writing is not helpful for everyone. In one study published last month, when people who typically are stoic wrote about their worst trauma, their anxiety actually increased. Those who were accustomed to being emotionally open, however, showed a drop in worry measures. That suggests that different people may have different ways of coping with traumatic events, and that writing may be an effective outlet for those who are normally more expressive, while pushing people to express feelings when they are not inclined to do so can actually increase risk for PTSD.

For those who do experience relief from expressing their emotions, however, writing may become an important part of helping them to recover —both in mind and in body— from difficult situations.

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I think that the part about getting more sleep is what primarily sped up the healing process, although the aspect about writing about their distressing memories may of facilitated a cathartic emotional release that could improve their state of mind which also would of helped with the healing process http://www.seobrisbanehq.com.au/, I think there is a lot to take away from this article and how positive thinking is very beneficial for your body.

“This is the first study to show that writing about personally distressing events can speed wound healing in [an older] population that is at risk of poor healing,” says Broadbent. I would certainly agree with this statement. http://www.liposuction-melbourne.net.au/sydney/

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This is a great article and clearly expresses the intimate link between the mind body connection. I thought the study that was performed observing the healing time differences between the 2 group was quite remarkable and clearly illustrates the need for a greater level recognition from our modern medical system about how releasing trauma and negative emotions are fundamental to proper healing... I found this article very revealing and a very thought provoking.

A friend just forwarded this wonderful article to me. I was particularly struck by the first section on writing to heal emotional and physical wounds. I work in a
related area that may be of interest to the author and readers:
filmmaking as a tool for healing, in particular of emotional wounds
resulting from war trauma.

The initiative is called I WAS THERE. We
work with veterans recovering at Army Warrior Transition Units and
elsewhere - and this article only confirms the self-evident value of
writing, telling, sharing - and in this case FILMING your story. It's all about creating narrative - using all the inovative tools available using this most robust and inherently collaborative
medium. We are simply replacing a pen or keyboard with a camera.

You can find
examples of the work on our website, www.iwastherefilms.org.
Congratulations to Ms. Szalavitz on an inspiring and necessary article.

I am a published author and give also courses in memoirs and journalling. I teach my friends and students to write a journal. At the beginning, they look at me in a weird way but if, each days, they write even few words about their day and... when a traumatic or disturbing event happen, they write the event, their emotions of the moment, write to the person who hurt them (not to be send of course, just to "vent", but to put everything on paper help greatly), etc... they deal with the problem in a completely different way and they are way calmer, less emotional in the physical dealing with the problem and find a better solution or way out of the problem.

To my point of view, of course writing don't solve all the problems but it helps people to deal with problems on a daily basis. As for PTSD, I am a victim of a double assault followed by death threats for 3 years and had a lot of problems dealing with this. I am a "strong" woman, dammit, I can't let this influence my life ;) but my mind and body had a different opinion and I was very sick for 4 years. Hey yes, I am stoic... dangerous world out there if you show your emotions... that is the way I was raised and I had to do this to survive but I am now writing my emotions mixing ink and tears and sobs... a little at the time... and it helps a lot...

The problem with the stoic is that they don't write pure emotion, they filter what to say, what to write, what they allow themselves to think and let go but if they finally give up and really let go... then they can do a lot of progress. :)

Like everything, writing help at different levels but it always brings something to the writer and this is important

//
Talking about difficult experiences can be a way of easing the emotional
pain of trauma, but the latest research shows that expressing emotions
in words can also speed physical healing. ......//
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/13/how-writing-heals-wounds-of-both-the-mind-and-body/#ixzz2Z21zQa2g ___________________ Writing
down something emotionally regarding one's own personal pain, ailment
or else such can help release one's pain etc. and thus one can be
healed out of his or wounds to great extent, as per my personal
observational experience.

Writing down something emotionally regarding one's own personal pain, ailment or else such can help release one's pain etc. and thus one can be healed out of his or injury to great extent, as per my personal observational experience.